The man who hid from police for nearly nine hours in the Gold Bar sewage plant earlier this month is facing 33 charges in connection to several convenience store robberies.
Jacob Shane Ritson-Bennett, 29, dubbed by police as the “scratch and lose bandit,” allegedly stole thousands of dollars in scratch-and-win lottery tickets from convenience stores in Edmonton between June 18 and Sept. 3.
Strathcona County RCMP were first called to domestic dispute in a fast-food restaurant bathroom in Sherwood Park on Sept. 4.
He allegedly fled in a stolen pickup truck which he ditched in the North Saskatchewan River.
Police believe he scaled nearly a 2-1/2-metre-high chain-link fence, topped with barbed wire, at the Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant. He hid from police dogs and armed tactical officers in the plant’s ductwork for nearly nine hours, police said. He was finally apprehended at 12:25 p.m.
Ritson-Bennett has been charged with seven counts of robbery and seven counts of wearing a disguise for the purpose of committing a criminal offence and four counts of possession of a weapon, among other charges.
